A collection of articles related to the intensifying trade war between the USA and the rest of the world.
One of the biggest complaints that the left get from Capital when we raise regulations is the cost of implementation of those regulations. But, looking around the world right now, it is hard to understand that is even a thing to worry about for standard regulatory programs.
There is pressing need for Canada to develop a robust industrial strategy centered on public investment, strategic diversification of export markets, industrial investment, and the safeguarding of publicly funded intellectual property.
The abundance of resources is not enough for Canadian production and export to be commercially viable. And, trade between provinces is limited by the same thing it always was in Canada: distance. The solutions to ensure sustained prosperity of the Canadian people rests with the old ideas of economic solidarity through federal, provincial, and municipal owned companies.
Before Trump was elected, there was a lot of discussions and warnings about what we should avoid doing in response to Trump. Things like avoiding the idea that he means what he says, that we should analyse the psychology of the statements, that we should only pay attention to one of the things instead of looking wholistically at what is happening. We were warned that we should also avoid thinking that there is no plan or that it is all the work of some madman. Why do we seem to have forgotten this warning?
Two examples in Ontario of why the Canadian economy continues to be at risk from the aggressive threats of tariffs from the USA.
The biggest white lies we tell each other are when excuses do not match the real reasons we are doing something. Trump has expanded this out to American policy, the lies are bigger but the concept is the same.
Tariffs on Canadian oil imports and exports can change price calculation in the USA, making the market more susceptible to local conditions. Moves to increase the price of oil in the USA will bring more domestic production online and will speed-up ongoing transition of refineries and pipelines to use Permian/fracked oil.
A major issue for Canada is that investment flows from the USA. It is 80 years since the end of the 1930s tariff regimes that lead to expanding dependence on trade with the USA. Capital investment is from US-based finance.
Ever wonder what the discussion about tariffs is actually about? There are a lot of explanations on the internet and in the news about what a tariff is.
Productivity is dependent on not just the investment in research, but the implementation of new technologies that increase profitability. A new report from the Dallas Fed points out that there is a way a state can foster increases in productivity from new technological investment, which is funding federal industrial research programs. In Canada, we have not done this in a way to foster actual productivity gains.
